FIRST DIVISION
[G.R. No. 259001. August 10, 2022.]
JULSNIEL LABAO y SANCHEZ ALIAS "ITSOY", 1petitioner,vs. PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, respondent.
NOTICE
Sirs/Mesdames :
Please take notice that the Court, First Division, issued a Resolution datedAugust 10, 2022which reads as follows:
"G.R. No. 259001 (Julsniel Labao y Sanchez alias "Itsoy" v. People of the Philippines). — This Petition for Review on Certiorari2 (petition) assails the Decision 3 dated 30 September 2020 and the Resolution 4 dated 23 November 2021 rendered by the Court of Appeals (CA) in CA-G.R. CR No. 01814-MIN. The CA affirmed the Decision 5 dated 04 March 2019 of Branch 33, Regional Trial Court of Libertad, Butuan City in Criminal Case No. 16177, finding petitioner Julsniel Labao y Sanchez alias "Itsoy" (petitioner) guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the crime of Homicide.
After a review of the records, the Court resolves to DENY the petition for failure to sufficiently show that the CA committed any reversible error in its assailed Decision and Resolution as to warrant the exercise of the Court's appellate jurisdiction.
There is, however, a need to MODIFY the penalty imposed against petitioner as well as the amount of temperate damages awarded.
The imposable penalty for Homicide under Article 249 of the Revised Penal Code 6 (RPC) is reclusion temporal. In the instant case, considering the absence of any aggravating or mitigating circumstance, the penalty should be imposed in its medium period pursuant to Article 64 (1) of the RPC. Applying the Indeterminate Sentence Law, 7 petitioner should be sentenced to an indeterminate penalty, the minimum of which should be within the range of the penalty next lower in degree than that prescribed by law for the crime, i.e., "prision mayor (6 years and 1 day to 12 years); and the maximum of which should be within the range of reclusion temporal in its medium period (14 years 8 months and 1 day to 17 years and 4 months)." 8 Here, the maximum of the indeterminate sentence imposed upon petitioner is only 14 years and four months, which, clearly, is not within the range of reclusion temporal in its medium period. Hence, the penalty of imprisonment should be modified to 10 years of prision mayor, as minimum, to 15 years of reclusion temporal, as maximum.
As no official receipt was presented to prove the actual payment for expenses incurred, temperate damages were correctly awarded in lieu of actual damages. Following People v. Jugueta, 9 the grant of temperate damages should be increased, however, from P25,000.00 to P50,000.00. Pursuant to prevailing law and jurisprudence, all monetary awards shall earn an interest at the rate of six percent (6%) per annum from date of finality of this Resolution until full payment. 10
WHEREFORE, the Petition for Review on Certiorari is DENIED. The Decision dated 30 September 2020 and Resolution dated 23 November 2021 of the Court of Appeals in CA-G.R. CR No. 01814-MIN are AFFIRMED with MODIFICATION. Petitioner Julsniel Labao y Sanchez alias "Itsoy" is sentenced to suffer the indeterminate penalty of imprisonment of 10 years of prision mayor, as minimum, to 15 years of reclusion temporal, as maximum. He is ordered to pay the heirs of Danilo Sajol the following amounts: (a) P50,000.00 as civil indemnity; (b) P50,000.00 as moral damages; and (c) P50,000.00 as temperate damages. All amounts awarded shall be subject to interest of six percent (6%) per annum from date of finality of this Resolution until fully paid.
SO ORDERED."
By authority of the Court:
(SGD.) LIBRADA C. BUENADivision Clerk of Court
by:
MARIA TERESA B. SIBULODeputy Division Clerk of Court
Footnotes
1. Etchoy in some parts of the records.
2. Rollo, pp. 23-36.
3. Id. at 42-58. Penned by Associate Justice Loida S. Posadas-Kahulugan and concurred in by Associate Justices Edgardo T. Lloren and Richard D. Mordeno.
4. Id. at 66-68. Penned by Associate Justice Loida S. Posadas-Kahulugan and concurred in by Associate Justices Evalyn M. Arellano-Morales and Richard D. Mordeno.
5. Id. at 79-86.
6. Act No. 3815, entitled "AN ACT REVISING THE PENAL CODE AND OTHER PENAL LAWS." Approved: 08 December 1930.
7. Act 4103, entitled "AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR AN INDETERMINATE SENTENCE AND PAROLE FOR ALL PERSONS CONVICTED OF CERTAIN CRIMES BY THE COURTS OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS; TO CREATE A BOARD OF INDETERMINATE SENTENCE AND TO PROVIDE FUNDS THEREFOR; AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES." Approved: 05 December 1933.
8. People v. Panerio, 823 Phil. 738, 751 (2018).
9. 783 Phil. 806, 853 (2016).
10. Id. at 854.